The Harlem-based musician performs in Providence, where she lived for awhile after attending Yale.

Larkin Grimms voice is sexy and commanding with its raw, almost visceral tones, somethingher promoter calls a bloody howl that is fierce enough to gobble people whole and spit out theirsouls.

Yet, in a recent phone interview, she is another single mom waiting for her son to get home andmusing about the artistic side of her craft, her dedication to being considered an artist byherself, her fans and her peers unwavering.

Why do people create anything? she asks, quickly answering the rhetorical question with,they are trying to make the world better. None of us can be as beautiful as their artwork, but wecan strive for something beautiful.

The Harlem-based musician, who lived in Providence for a time after attending Yale University, returns June 22 for a concert at The Grove.

Grimm's latest album, Chasing an Illusion, dropped June 16. She saysshe surrounds herself with amazing people and finds herself consistently holding them andherself to higher standards than the industry generally demands.

Chasing an Illusion is a freer sound than Grimms previous albums, as sheblurs the confines of genres and infuses her songs with a more jazz edge, tapping older recordingand mixing equipment to achieve a more unique result.

I dont get moved by todays computerized pop songs why would you Auto-Tune Beyonc? even though I recognize the artistry behind them," she says. I love old, flawed songs. Its all about thefeeling. Autotuning is as bad for our soul as airbrushed pictures are to a womans selfimage.

The lyrics on the new album are drawn from her life experiences, particularly motherhood. Shecalls it her latest attempt at creating utopia through sound.

This is an album about higher love and truth truth in sound, accomplished by recording live,keeping the vocals raw, hearing the actual sound of the room and letting the out of tune and outof time parts celebrate our humanity and imperfection, Grimm notes. This is the beauty of thealbum, as we honor the perfection of the divine energy that we invoke through the ritual trance ofthis music.

Believing that the music is a product of the energy and vibe among the musicians at themoment of recording, she tries to direct that feeling to a degree. At one point while recordingpieces for Chasing an Illusion, she started a conversation with her musicians about the bookshe was reading about a transgender kid whose father sent him to straight camp. A lesbian, shesays she was also sent away when her parents learned about her first girlfriend.

Through this music, I strive to be free free from suffering, free from shame, free frominhibitions, free from language, free from hatred, free from oppression, free from gender, freefrom race, free from expectations, she says.

Chasing an Illusion was written in the midst of Grimms divorce and at a time she found outshe had skin cancer. Both left the artist feeling deflated and with an ego that was crushed. Sheturned to yoga, where she met other musicians who helped her regain her self-awareness throughhealing and creating music.

It was like getting a head-to-toe massage hitting all of your stuff and expelling all of yourstuff, she explains.

Susan McDonald is a regular contributor to The Providence Journal. She can be reached at Sewsoo1@verizon.net.

If you go ...

What: Larkin Grimm

When: 7 p.m. Thursday, June 22

Where: The Grove, 25 Grove St., Providence

Tickets: $10 suggested donation at the door

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Singer Larkin Grimm creates utopia through sound - The Providence Journal